Notices by Barney (barney@mas.to), page 6

@Nonilex

I'll speak to the part about Trump sticking his head up. Before the Secret Service allowed him to do that, we could hear them confirming to each other that the shooter was "down." I think they decided it was safe to let him be exposed again.

It's true that he turned a trivial nick from a piece of shrapnel into a massive propaganda win. But I don't think any of it was staged.

This doesn't really matter, but... I don't think it's possible that Trump's ear was hit directly by a bullet.

For one thing, there's no bullet trajectory that could hit the front part of his ear like this, without then going into his head. But also, look at the angle of his head, relative to the shooter's position. I think his ear was hit by something from behind the podium. Maybe a fragment of one of the bullets, after it struck something behind the stage?

#USPol

@absinthe

"Sources tell Chief Investigator Rick Earle the officers were just feet away from Trump when shots rang out. The four officers suffered minor injuries from flying debris caused by the bullets. Sources say the officers were hit with either plastic or metal fragments when the bullets struck objects nearby."

I think this is what happened to Trump's ear, too.

#USPol

https://www.yahoo.com/news/live-updates-apparent-shots-fired-223759785.html

@absinthe

Yes, I saw some reports quoting the PA State Police as saying that he was hit by a shard of glass from a teleprompter.

I think it had to be something that originated behind the stage, so it couldn't have been a teleprompter screen. But maybe there was a teleprompter projector behind the stage? Is that possible?

Here's a medical paper that includes some photos of graze gunshot wounds (warning: graphic). There's just no way that a direct hit from an AR-15 round caused what we've all seen in the close-up photos of his ear.

Again, it doesn't really matter. Someone did shoot at him, trying to kill him. But they didn't hit him.

#USPol

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6507010/

Our horrifically defective political press is now going to invent a fantasy of a "kinder and gentler Trump."

This is a man who, to this day, continues telling the lie that he won the 2020 election, and stands by his decision to assault the Capitol and murder the Vice President.

#USPol #Journalism

@Sobieck

Biden can't add justices to the Supreme Court. That requires an act of Congress.

#USPol

@melaniesill @dangillmor

Won't someone think of the airports??

Our poor airports. They've never been the same since the Continental Army took them over during the Revolutionary War.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6mZ1ofj2Vo

@StevenSavage

Of all the fucking idiotic pro-Trump leftist replies I've ever seen here, this is may be the absolute fucking stupidest.

Jesus fucking Christ, you Nazi-humping Kolektiva fucks. "Wait until President Trump bans masking in public." EVERYWHERE IN PUBLIC.

Did you know that Trump has already promised to ban federal funding to any public school with vaccine mandates? Which means LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING PUBLIC SCHOOL IN AMERICA, since the 1980s?

#COVID #USPol

@cdarwin

"[Trump] admitted that when he became president he didn't even know what NATO was..."

It's amazing how far people will go to avoid writing the simple truth: "For the first time in history, a foreign enemy conquered the United States."

@GreenFire

JFC. I've been following the news closely, and I wasn't even aware that Clarence Thomas took a yacht trip to Russia, complete with a helicopter trip to Putin's palace, paid for by Republican donor Harlan Crow.

That's how utterly defective our worthless political press is.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/clarence-thomas-took-free-trip-215006676.html

@kyozou

I agree. The only other possible nominee who could replace Biden is Harris. If that happens, then a hell of a lot of these screaming assholes are going to immediately reveal themselves as the pro-fascist agitators that they are.

@Gracchus

I really wish I had started a running count of the number of Australians on this platform who know nothing about American politics, but yet still see fit to come here and fuck up my fellow Americans' lives with garbage like this.

My country is on the edge of a fascist nightmare that will cause terrible suffering for generations of people all over the world, and these people are determined to drag us all into it.

What is it with Australians and the Fediverse?

#uspol

Alabama state GOP chairman says democracy "leads to socialism."

#USPol #fascism

https://www.al.com/news/2024/07/whitmire-alabama-gop-chairman-says-democracy-leads-to-socialism.html

This man obviously is not mentally fit to be president. He has to drop out.

#USPol

This account, rewarp[@]rewarp.com, operates its own single-user instance, with the explicitly declared purpose of advocating illegal piracy.

Instances that prohibit illegal activities will want to defederate rewarp.com.

#Fediblock

@rob11563

The most important thing I've learned in 8 years is this: Authoritarianism causes people to think and do things they never anticipated they might think or do.

In 2016, every GOP senator despised Trump. Now, almost all of them would gladly kill or die for Trump.

Your MAGA neighbor, parent, or spouse, who loves you, might one day murder you. As unthinkable as it seems now, any of us might one day commit murder for our führer.

@pbump

#usPolitics #GOP #jdVance

@nazgul

Also crucially important: The leader of France's white supremacist fascist party, Jordan Bardella, is furious. But he's not threatening to overthrow the French government in a bloody coup.

Our Republican Party, OTOH, is far more extreme. The GOP unanimously and fanatically endorses violent revolution, and it has already rejected the authority of our 2024 elections in advance. The GOP controls most of our military, and virtually all law enforcement agencies.

#USPol

@nazgul

I'm heartened by the surprise result in France, but I'm afraid that we won't be able to replicate it in the US. As you say, French voters and political leaders reacted sanely, whereas most Americans are now deeply insane and unable to think. Also, my sense is that France still has a functioning free press. We, of course, do not.

Maybe both of those problems can be addressed in time to save our democracy this November.

#USPol

@GreenFire

Indeed, Biden retired in 2016. He came back from retirement in 2020 only as a service to our country, to save us from extinction.

@bmalsuj, on the other hand, is a pro-fascist leftist account whose goal is to push our country to extinction.